Books, in all their variety, offer the human intellect the means whereby civilisation may be carried triumphantly forward. -Churchill

Fact of the day: 16th September

On this day in 1701 James Francis Edward Stuart, sometimes called the “Old Pretender”, became the Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England and Scotland.

James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales was the English son of the soon-to-be-deposed James II of England (James VII of Scotland).

As such, he claimed the English, Scottish and Irish thrones (as James III of England and Ireland and James VIII of Scotland) from the death of his father in 1701, when he was recognised as king of England, Scotland and Ireland by his cousin Louis XIV of France.

Following his death in 1766 he was succeeded by his son Charles Edward Stuart in the Jacobite Succession. Had his father not been deposed, there would have been only two monarchs during his lifetime; his father and himself.

In reality there were six; the last three Stuarts and the first three Hanoverians. Although the ruling Protestant Stuarts died out with his half-sister, Queen Anne, the last remaining Stuarts were James and his sons, and their endeavours to reclaim the throne whilst remaining devoted to their Catholic faith is remembered in history as Jacobitism.